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Sonic Picks 24

Ain: ع (2019

Reviewed format: digital download album on QUANTUM NATIVES

After having finished the most recent series of Genot Centre reviews recently, today I'm reviewing a new release on a label that I'm new to and that's also been added to my network of labels that send me review / promo copies of their new releases. This label is QUANTUM NATIVES, an online label that releases curious and experimental music with a lot of creative and Noise infused sound shaping as well as interesting concepts that goes along with a site on which all releasese are put on an actual map. Definitely an intriguing label that makes great use of modern digital techniques and involves audiovisual art and graphic design as well. The first new release I'm reviewing today of QUANTUM NATIVES is this album by Ain, titled ع, Ain is a collaboration between Egyptian based artist Amr El-Alamy and US based Matt Liston and on this album is a result of the exploration of "the contrast and connection between a place of militance and decay and one of lavish acceleration through a shared sonic-emotional language" as it says in the release description included in my review copy email I received. So, indeed the ideas, feelings and ingredients of the music on this album are rather dark and in no way moving in postive or bright directions but while the mood is dark the music still delivers a great immersive and sonically intense and detailed listening experience. As Ain delivers a great 8 track album of glitch / plunderphonics infused sonic pieces that freely wander from Noise to more melodic, sometimes repetitives parts that feels fresh and new and totally unique in its bass-heavy sound design and composition. Before I get into the music track by trak, I'll mention that my review copy of this album came with the 8 album tracks in 320kbps MP3 files, the album cover as well as 4 additional "landscape" artwork pictures. This will be mostly identical to the download you can get from QUANTUM NATIVES.

ع starts with the track Acid Tears - دموع الأسيد, a piece that features a melody played by a sharp metallic synth that's "spread" overtime, getting chopped up at points too, leading the music. This melody is placed over squelcy, machine like bubbling dirty sounding synth effects. It feels "militaristic" and alien at the same time, the machinery like synths having been morphed into molten steel/plastic structures of sound, until the second half in the piece where the main synth melody changes up and becomes sharper and more prominent. In this second half the synth melody gets increasingly intense and distorted as well as being even more compressed than in the first half. Especially at the end the synth sound reminds me a bit of Clark, though with a much more Industrial / Noise sounds added and a fuzzier more destructive sound. Very nice. This piece then smoothly moves to the second track Anxiety Vessel - كبسولة قلق which is very very bass heavy, compressed and distorted mechanic squelchy Noise murk, very nice. Only siren synths sounds, high pitched noise burst and resonant noise can rise above the massive earthquake of sound, very intense. End Time Rhythm - إيقاع النهاية features a more percussion heavy sound, metallic Industrial percussion that is and again nicely destroyed sounding by the very heavy distortion and compression. Distant hollow resonant Industrial hums, and filtered metallic synth effects add factory like elements to the shattered and rumbling Industrial soundscape as siren synths scatter and pan around in the Industrial rhythmic structures. The Industrial hums and drones give this piece a great base that the rhythms are built around and it does feel calm in a way as well. Great Industrial mood in here. Please Escape - إهرب لو سمحت then, is a short piece full of stuttery and panned Industrial and Noise percussion and rumbly low distorted sound. Very much a pure sonics based piece that features great sonic manipulations and an intensely scattered destructive cloud of ever evolving Noise sounds. Dread Tune - نغمة فَزَع moves in a more melodic plunderphonics based sound with clusters of music samples stuttering and being reversed and pitch manipulated into arpeggios. It's a pretty lengthy piece and a bit repetitive but the subtly changing synth / sound manipulated in the background, low saturated squelches, shifting high frequency sounds and background industrial sounds do add some nice progression to the piece which keeps it interesting and captivating to listen to. More sparse in the sonic imaging than other piece but pretty effective sonic manipulations and rather fun to listen to, even if the title says Dread Tune actually. Everything Is Crumbling Around Me - كله بينهار حوليا mixes classic harsh squelching screechy Noise techniques with Drill & Bass like heavy percussive sound manipulation with plenty of crazy stereo imaging effects being used too. Very murky and distorted sounding most of the time the constantly jumping bass and metallic sound heavy rhythms create some excellent sonic enjoyment which brings ع into an a more percussive direction. Melodic elements are kept to a restricted minimum in here and overall the track feels like this curious shapeshifting squelches mass of muddy mixed sonic materials, always moving, morphing and shapeshifting, nice. Club Horror - رعب الكلَب is the longest piece on this album and features a more Drone based sound full of glitchy metallic and reverberated Industrial percussion, tense distorted screechy tones and distant melodic patterns that create an ambience that is again darker and more visceral with the growing cloud of hissing glitchy Noise sonic scattering all around the sound image like a tense battle brought back to corrupted degraded sonic bits and pieces of sound. Hypnotic and subtly moving forward, this track is an intriguing Industrial soundscape. Devastation Assimilated - إِستَوعبنا الخراب is the final track of the album and features heavily distorted metallic sample stabs in a crumbling murky haze of Noise, both droning but also rhythmic, like an attack of sound both melodic but also dangerously destructive, it's bass frequencies quickly moving towards you like seismic waves. A particlaurly intense finale to this album, that with it's 33:49 playing time is a bit short but packs a lot of impressive, enjoyable but also convincing dark and tense Noise, drone and Industrial soundscapes.

ع by Ain is an album packing both dark and lighter soundscapes and rhythms filled with metallic, crumbling, sub bass quakes and resonant sonics as well as melodic patterns in several pieces that blends a feeling of terror and dread with elements that feel more hopeful. While these pieces often feel dangerous, Ain doesn't overdo their compositions and sound design and offers glimmers of light in the darkness of ruins and the often abstract nature of the tracks opens up room for many interpretations and sonic mind images. An intriguing and excellently created album of sonic imagery that I definitely recommend. This is a great listen for listeners into Noise, Industrial, Drone but also anyone looking for a unique sonic experience that will shake your mind and give you an intense physical listening experience as well as fans of experimental music in general.

digital download album available from the QUANTUM NATIVES site here (look for ع on the map): http://quantumnatives.com